Southern California -- this just in

No sign that 6.2 Gulf of California quake will affect L.A.

There were no reports of major damage following a 6.2 magnitude earthquake that shook the southern edge of Baja California on Tuesday.

Although the shaking was widely felt, the epicenter was in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico -- about 50 miles from the closest major city, La Paz.

"You're going to feel it, but the shaking is not going to be terribly strong, so the expectation of damage would not be that high," U.S. Geological Survey research geophysicist Robert Graves said.

The region is prone to earthquakes, as Baja California is slowly being torn away from the rest of Mexico.

There was no sign that Tuesday's quake increased the chances of an earthquake hitting Southern California, Graves said, noting that the quake was only a 6.2 and the fact that it was so far away, striking more than 800 miles southeast of Los Angeles.

"For a magnitude 6.2 ... I would have low expectation that it would act as a triggering event for an event so far away," Graves said. But, he said, "if we started seeing a couple of more events like this, and if they appeared to be marching northward, that would be a cause for further investigation."

Graves said Southern Californians should remember that they live in earthquake country, and the region "will have an earthquake at some point in the future. So we need to be prepared, in any case."